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I love you “too”…

A few days after I came to Karachi for my studies, I talked to Muneeba on phone. After asking about how she was, if she was missing me or not, how her school was going and what she did the whole day, I was just about to hang up the call when she got my attention and said “Chachoo”, I replied “Ji Beta”, and she said “I Love You too”. This was the first time I heard her say this sentence (with an extra ‘too’ at the end), and it made me cry and laugh at the same time. What amazed me was the way she inserted this sentence into our conversation, and the way she got my attention just to say this one sentence. She must have been eagerly waiting for the right time to say this to me throughout my conversation with her. She must have planned to say this to me before the call ended. I knew straight away that this sentence came right from her heart. I knew that she really meant it.

Days went by. I usually talked to her every alternate day or sometimes after a gap of 2 or 3 days. Whenever I said to her that I love you, she replied I love you too. She probably had understood by now what the “too” meant. But it was always her who got to say this “too” after saying “I love you”.

A couple of weeks back when ammi was coming to Karachi, she told Muneeba that she’d be meeting me here as well, and also that my birthday was approaching, hence Muneeba should make some cards for me. How could Muneeba waste such an excellent chance of sending me something? One day when she returned from school, she silently went to her room and made a lovely landscape at the back of one of her class work sheets. That’s probably the only paper she found to work at. She didn’t want to waste any time or to ask anyone to give her a piece of paper. She drew a house, a lot many stars and a moon, and above all, she glittered it. Another day when ammi put some receipt on a table, Muneeba got hold of it and made a lovely flower at the back of that receipt, checked her work herself, gave herself a star, and glittered it as well. No one knew she had started making gifts for me, but she was silently collecting her drawings for me.

When ammi’s departure for Karachi was only a couple of days away, she asked Muneeba if she had made any “card” for me, which she hadn’t. She had only been making drawings at the back of papers. She must have felt disappointed because as soon as she realized the fact that she hadn’t made any card for me, she asked her mother to give her some piece of chart paper to work at. She found a blue chart paper, which she made into a great card. On the front of this card she drew a beautiful butterfly and colored it, drew some flowers, and a sun and clouds, and some grass, and colored them all. Inside, she wrote:

Dear chacho

I miss you

I love you

From Muniba.

It was only later that everyone at home found out that Muneeba had not only made one “card” for me, but had also been working at drawing at the back of her class works. This was when everyone came to know that it wasn’t one card, it was three of them. When ammi handed over these cards to me, I didn’t know if I should smile or cry. I immediately said out loud, I miss you “too”, I love you “too”. That’s when I realized that it was the first time I got to say I love you “too”. Muneeba said it to me through those cards, I’m saying this to her through this post.

Sharafsaid

Sharafsaid

Taj Shirazisaid

Haris this was very very touching. Kids are very perceptive and they know how to brighten their loved one’s day! My youngest sister is a special child (Downs syndrome baby) and she is the most emotionally intelligent of us all. Its a blessing that she is my life.

@Kaleem: Yaar filhaal I dont plan to write anything on politics. But yeah, I plan to start with a seperate Poetry page soon Insha-Allah. And I thought I already had a couple of posts about philosophy on this blog🙂. You’ll see more of that as well Insha-Allah. Do keep checking.

Sabahatsaid

@Sabahat: I just so miss her… And you made me miss her even more🙂. I posted her picture in one of my posts, don’t remember which. It was about Eid when I couldn’t go home and was missing everyone while being away from home…